Beyond the Last Day
by flatterus
Summary: The heroine finds herself back in time at the filming of Alias Smith and Jones and leaves us with new hope for the great Pete Duel.


An Alias Smith and Jones related time travel story that revisits the actors who play Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry back in 1971. Touches on Pete Duel's suicide only in a classy way. Gives a spark of hope for S&J's fans!

Santa Monica Dec 2015

"You're both insane!" Elliot Marlboro leaned back in his computer chair and knocked over an extra large iced latte onto his keyboard splattering the creamy coffee in every direction. His best friend Sam Nash stripped off his t-shirt and used it to dab the keyboard. Sam snorted, "Forget it! We can't use this. Just hand me the new one in the box. She can't transport until…" He lost his train of thought as he reached for a large flat box leaning against one of three desks. "Kaslan's not going anywhere unless she agrees to the conditions." Elliot announced.

Sam scowled at his sister, "How about it, Kaslan?" The twenty-eight year old computer tech mopped up coffee off the chair and floor. "Don't ignore your phone this time! Respond the second we call—no stalling, no complaints. I don't care if you're in the middle of making-out with your new boyfriends."

"I know, I agreed!" Kaslan stomped a foot. "You two are paranoid! I'm just asking to stay a little longer, that's all." She glared at Sam. "And I'm not going to be making-out with anyone!"

Elliot rolled his green eyes heavenward and rubbed them with his fingertips. "Sam, you know how I feel about this. She can't stay longer. What about her phone battery? We're getting reckless with all of this. We don't know enough about the consequences. If something happened to her, the state of California would charge us with homicide."

"Get over yourself, Ell," Kaslan snapped. "You morons ruined my last trip! You owe me!"

"You're starting from scratch, Kas. You can't go back to where you left off," Elliot taunted her. "Your boyfriends won't even know who you are."

"She made a face and countered. So?"

"You take nothing; no hair brush, no makeup and no money."

"Don't even start! You're acting like I'm stupid."

"You left a book of matches behind last time! That's stupid!"

Kaslan glared at her friend and sneered "Shut up Ell!"

Elliot expelled his air and ran his palms over his shoulder length blond hair. He was only twenty seven years old, but lately, he felt like an old man. Maybe it was the effect of time travel. Maybe it was the Kaslan effect. What was he doing anyway? He was a decent looking guy, especially for a computer nerd. He need to go get himself a smart, sexy, beautiful, amazing girl—that wasn't so flipping spoiled. Kaslan didn't even know he existed. Jaw set, he glanced up at Sam. "I'm not babysitting this project for more than twenty four hours. If she stays out longer, you're both on your own."

Sunlight glowed through sheer white curtains making its debut for the day. Twenty-three year old Kaslan squatted to rub Elliot's knees with her hands. He was looking out for her; she knew that. He'd always been good to her and a good friend. Sometimes, he acted like her dad. "Everything is going to be ok, Ell. That's what you told me when we sent Sam out for the first time. And I trusted you." She tipped her head and smiled, "Now it's your turn to trust me."

Elliot told Sam once that he could refuse Kaslan nothing when she smiled at him that way. He might even tell her that–someday.

"Get on the glide." Elliot sighed when the configuration check came through.

"Now?" Kaslan bit her lip. She squeezed Elliot's knees again and waited to meet his eyes. He glanced down at her and she mouthed to him, "Thank you."

Jerking his head away, clearing away some books, he shoved his free-weights under the desk with a foot then plugged in another keyboard. Man, the girl was beautiful. Pouting at his knees, she was heaven. Sam knew how Elliot felt, but it didn't matter. Kaslan wanted to travel back in time to hang out with some randy TV stars. Elliot knew something was going on. She was going back to them for the third time! It was killing him that he helped her go see those guys. But what choice did he have? His resolve lay in the gutter of self-doubt while the green monster kicked him around a lot. Meeting Kaslan's eyes amounted to emotional suicide. Hmmm….Speaking of suicide…

"Kas, you know that even if you manage to talk your actor-friend out of his little depression, he'll still commit suicide on New Years Eve. Time and events are restored to the present the instant you come back. You can't change the past."

"How many times do you have to tell me that? You're just mad that I have hope. So sue me! I'd like to make a difference! Now that I've met him, I'd settle for a little insight."

Elliott exhaled. "Kas, if meaningful change were possible, you and Sam and I and the whole world would cease to exist. We'd all be weeds! You better pray lover boy suicides."

"Shut up, Ell! That's a sick thing to say. Why are you acting like stuff is not possible? We're doing things we never thought we could! We're time travelers now! Wasn't that supposed to be impossible?" Kaslan stroked her thick, long honey brown hair and twisted it into a rope. "I need a clip."

Elliot glared at her and shook his head. "No clip, doll. You get nothing. And make sure you come back with everything you're wearing; shoes, socks, jeans, shirt…bra…panties…"

"Whatever!" Kaslan snorted at his lechery. She stepped onto the glide—the magnetic plate positioned between three computers where time travel took place. Magnets sat between gold and silver conductor strips that transmitted through wires surrounding the spatial sphere where the computer fed an algorithm into the components. A two-twenty outlet in the garage powered the whole shebang. Twenty four memory chips embedded on custom motherboards monitored fundamental elements necessary for transference. Plain old electricity and custom software written by Ellstrom managed STI, the crux of time travel. Sam and Ell managed to tweak all the components to gain control of the time portal they created using a synchronized triangular interpolation, or STI. Collectively, this would make the trio's thirteenth trip back in time, Kaslan's third.

"The electricity bill was only $293 this month. We're using only fair amounts of power on exits and returns." Sam observed.

Elliot gazed into his screen,"That's cheap! I Like I said, once we paid for the parts, operating cost would be negligible. The moment someone arrives at the time destination, monitoring is nothing." He smiled to himself and ran the process through his mind. Kaslan would suspend above the glide using magnets acting on metal in her belt that held her above the negative pole plate. All matter within the coordinates captured within the scope of the focus chip was mapped and monitored in that space. In an odd sense, she would remain in room, but after the transfer she'd be on the other side of the portal. Virtually infinite memory triangulated between computers was made available to maintain the time warp that held Kaslan's physical matter within the STI allowing her without restriction to interact with the past.

"Here, There, and Everywhere." Ellstrom shook his head. Man, the Beatles were so ahead of their time.

Sam focused a digital camera to capture the moment of his sister's departure. The effect of transfer through the portal was not unlike the aura created when the sound barrier is breached. Until now, monitoring for safety had prevented them from getting a good digital photo of that. Sam hoped to finally capture a high definition shot of the time barrier exchange this time.

Kaslan checked the two-way radio on her phone again and her voice came through the speakers. Elliot paused to gaze at Kaslan, just in case he was doing it for the last time. He squeezed a cheek and frowned at himself for that morbid thought. She would be fine. A few minutes later, checks were complete. He met her eyes and paused to gaze at her. Seconds clicked. Beautiful. Elliot slid his tongue between his teeth, then pressed enter key. From a blue and gold flash, a brilliant aura pulsed outward in a fountain of tiny yellow and green sparks mixed with lavender ice crystals not unlike the texture of fine diamond sand. The effluvia of fire and ice showered the room like an aurora borealis rain. The phenomenon continued for several seconds until the entire orb with Kaslan inside folded sideways and vanished.

"Quiet on the set! And…action!"

Kaslan took a deep breath and steadied herself, peering around the full size train on the old west lot at Universal Studios. She'd made it back in time safely and watched the last minutes of the actors filming a scene. The director yelled, "Cut!" and the lead actor Pete Duel glanced over at her as she crossed the street and leaned against an wooden building. He pulled his leather gloves off by the fingers, one by one. "Last day," She heard him say to his co-star, Ben Murphy.

In the beginning, Kaslan had an infinite number time travel options. Keith Urban before country was cool. George Washington crossing the Delaware. Brad Pitt whenever. She landed in this time period first quite by accident. Sam had explained why. During the development of the time travel software, the currents of time affected calculations within the computer chips to fix the date and place in a relatively unpredictable manner. When they started to travel at first, a shift occurred every time a new date, time or place changed. Repeat visits finally become more predictable, but some results of the visit to the past weren't all that satisfying because they weren't cumulative. In computer-speak, that meant you were not able to save your game.

Infected with the acting bug Kaslan wanted to study the movie making process as well as the art itself. She had no training and little experience so winding up on a movie set during filming was a dream come true. Originally they aimed for another time period at Universal Studios her first trip out, but she accidentally landed on the then popular Alias Smith and Jones set instead. It was a little disconcerting that first day. She was confused about the time differential and the place she landed knowing nothing about the show, but she decided to make the most of it.

After a good look at the actors Pete Duel and Ben Murphy, Kaslan decided to stick around. When she returned to present time after meeting the actors, she discovered the lead actor Pete Duel committed suicide at the height of the show's popularity. She later did some research, bent on unraveling the causes of that kind of tragedy. She learned about eccentric personality traits, depression and suicide. Artistic types often fell prey to them all. Ultimately, she became a fan of the show and dedicated her next travel trips to talk with the actors again. Perhaps, she could come to a better understanding about what happened.

"Toss me that camera wire." Sam reached out. "I want to see the pictures. I changed the settings of the capture software and wanted to see if it produced anything."

"We can't tell anybody about this, Sam." Elliot warned, untangling wires.

"You keep saying that, Ell. But why? I mean, if everything in the past is stable, what's the harm?

"Ever since Kaslan left that matchbook behind without wiping out civilization as we know it, I'm fairly certain the past is a fixed on some level, but we really don't know if we'll see repercussions from it some day. And what about effects on history? Our memories and cameras record the events, but history doesn't change. I'm not entirely certain of all the implications of that. Disclosing our invention is still risky even if we could prove it is safe. I mean, something this big could profoundly change the lives of every person on earth! We're no more than a couple of punk kids with the keys to a gassed up jet and a clear blue sky. "

Sam scoffed. "People said the same thing about the printing press, about the TV, and even the computer for Pete's sake! Besides, there won't be room for medals on our lapels once the scientific world finds out!"

Well huh! Sam wanted a medal on his lapel. Ellstrom didn't give a trouser cough about accolades or medals. The infectious brunette Kaslan would do. But what did Kaslan want? Was she in love with that actor, Pete Duel? Would she come home broken-hearted by a situation she could not change? If so, could Ellstrom change that? He knew his giant ego played a roll in this debacle. If he really cared for her, or for the world, once Kaslan returned, he'd scrap the whole experiment, kit and caboodle. He needed to get over himself for inventing time travel! Kas and Sam might never forgive him for it, but the way things were spiraling out of control, the thought of slaying his own pet dragon proved tempting.

"Who is that?" The director swept his hand in Kaslan's direction, "Get the extras off the set!"

Kaslan scooted behind a sound grip and disappeared on the other side of the railroad tracks where the full size train engine with a caboose connected to a passenger car stood, huffing and hissing. Wooden buildings with raised boardwalks and the smell of horses completed the set experience. Kaslan was deciding what to do when one of the actors, Ben Murphy crossed the tracks behind the train and walked up. He touched the brim of his silver and turquoise adorned cowboy hat and gave her a big grin, "Mornin'."

"Hi," Kaslan bit the corner of her lip and smiled back flashing her violet blue eyes. Ben wore a brown cowboy hat, boots, tan shirt and pants. She'd spoken with him when she visited before, but with the idiosyncrasies of time travel, he wouldn't remember. She learned he enjoyed tennis, sports and riding horses on set. She might try those subjects, or even flirting, to keep him from giving her the boot. Right now, all she could think about was how much Ben resembled the great Paul Newman.

"Who do you got here, Ben?" Also garbed in period clothes, Pete Duel followed Ben around the back of the train. Charming dimples on display, he'd tucked his hands in the top of his gun belt and wandered over. After meeting the boys the first time, Kaslan obtained episodes of Alias Smith and Jones and watched them all. She knew the characters they played, Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry, their smiles, their quirks. Pete shoved back the cowboy hat on his head like she'd seen him do so many times before. Too bad she couldn't get a picture of this!

"And you are…?"

"Kaslan." She nodded hello, "Look, I uh…" She brushed away stray hair.

"Don't worry. Singer's busy." Ben removed his hat and casually tossed his head in the vicinity of the director.

"You're supposed to get rid of me, right?"

His crescent blue eyes sparkled, "No, the sound guy was. But I told him I would do it."

"I was hoping I could watch," She gave him an adorable smile.

"The best place for that is _behind_ the director." Ben smiled back.

Connection with this actor who portrayed Kid Curry was instant. Ben and Kaslan clicked. Not just for obvious reasons, it was a hard-wired thing. They only shared a few words, but rivers of energy. She hoped to get more time with him.

Pete Duel's gaze intensified as he took another step closer. She looked over at him and blinked slowly, soaking in the rush. She would remember this moment forever. Used to turning heads, it struck her that this rare interaction with Ben and Pete would be wiped out, totally lost upon her return home. Ruby red slippers and no wicked witch, she was in _Kansas_. Sam and Ell had re-baptized her 'Dorothy' until she made them quit saying it.

"Where'd they go?" The director, Alex Singer glanced around.

Ben started back across the tracks. "It's my scene, Petey, you can take a minute."

"By the way," Kaslan wondered. "What's today's date?"

Pete frowned, "Thursday, December thirty-first. Why?"

Crap. They were going to have to tweak that chronology factor. She thought they set the date for the 29th so she could spend some time with Pete and Ben. Now she would have to go home earlier than expected. Witnessing a suicide was not the show she came to see. Zero hour, the suicide, happened just after midnight on the 31st.

"No reason. Ready for the new year?" Kaslan gave him a crooked smile.

Pete pulled down the corners of his handsome mouth and lifted a shoulder. "Maybe…"

"Parfois l'impossible est vraiment possible!" She said in French.

He shifted a little and looked at her sideways.

She shook her head, trying to process everything. Pete looked confused but smiled that smile again. Even in English she had more than thirty years-worth of phrases, cliches and word plays to capture his attention. Heck, with all those extra years of wisdom, she could be his mother. Mystery was working so she used it again. She translated, "Sometimes what people believe to be impossible is really possible."

He crossed his arms. The dimple in his left cheek flickered. "Like?"

Kaslan couldn't resist. The writers of the show pulled this kind of thing on the show. Anonymity was everything to Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry, the prime characters. Once in a while someone would ask them, "Who are you guys, anyway?" Smith and Jones (their aliases) sometimes answered truthfully, "Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry." But because those were the names of the most notorious outlaws in the west, and since no one in his right mind would admit to being Curry and Heyes, no one believed them—to the great delight of the audience. Of course, sometimes the other characters didn't believe their names were Smith or Jones, either.

Kaslan gave him a taste of the show's own medicine. "Me, for instance; I look like your ordinary girl, but I'm really a time traveler visiting from the twenty first century and I came to save your life."

"Ah." Pete said with a remarkable, coquettish smirk.

She would remember all they talked about later. Right now she was too busy observing the anomaly of the circumstances not to mention that he was flirting with her. Even more distracting, the creator didn't make them any more handsome, any wittier, any more charming that this man. Why suicide, Pete? They spoke for several more minutes before Alex Singer, the director, called, "Peter!"

"Are you going to stick around?" He asked.

"Mmm…I don't know…" Kaslan couldn't help picturing him lying under the Christmas tree, as reports described, gun laying nearby.

"Maybe we could talk later." He urged.

What the heck…. She smiled and answered, "Yes, I'd like that."

"Check out this picture!" Sam whooped as Ell's jaw sagged. Kaslan stood encased in the center of an encircling globe of light at the very moment she stepped out into the past. An old steam engine sat in the background. "That's hot, Sam!" A second later, in the midst of their celebration the computer screen went blank.

"Whoa." Sam slid his chin sideways and he quickly changed the subject. "Was that a screensaver or what?" He leaned down to check the computer below the desk. "Oh hell, there's coffee on it!"

"Call her!" Elliot shouted.

Sam slid over to another computer and clicked the relay that chirped his sister's phone. Elliot slid into another chair and clicked away at the keys.

Kaslan heard the phone in her pocket. Timing was just fine, boys. Pete was heading back to do a scene with Ben. When they left, she clicked back and asked, "What's going on?" The answer came through fuzzy and broken, "Glitch …back."

Kaslan swallowed hard and frowned. Communications shouldn't be a problem. Functional differences in her presence here were, ironically, both acute and negligible. Since she was technically always within the special confines mapped out by the computers and suspended over the glide, Kaslan was, practically speaking, in the same room with Ell and Sam no matter where she went in the past. That meant poor communications could be an indicator of a more serious problem. Presence didn't mean a thing if time and space weren't in communion. The computer software had always seamlessly managed the disparity through triangular interpolation and there was no chance of power failure with the backup they had. So if communication was bad, it indicated that something in the STI had been affected. Kaslan suddenly wanted Ell to hold her.

"Get a blow dryer, Sam, we have to clean and dry this motherboard!"

"Relax, Ell," Sam lowered his voice. "Everything is going to be ok. She wanted to stay longer anyway. She's not in any real danger, we are fully mapped and backed. It's not like she'd die." He shrugged, and quipped, "She'll just live out the rest of her life in the past."

"Damn it, Sam, that's not acceptable! I hate this thing! I hate it more and more every day! I don't care how long the little twit wants to play her little game. She's coming back as soon as we get these components operational." He looked off, "And then I'm done."

"Hey, I was kidding! What kind of talk is that, Ell? Don't say that kind of stuff! It scares me."

"The way you talk scares me, Sam! Kaslan's life is at stake. What kind of brother are you?"

"Hey, friend…Kaslan is the only family I have. She is my life. I'm not going to let anything happen to her. Come on, she's fine! We're going to fix this. You need to lighten up. Ok?"

While she waited for Pete to finish for the day, Kaslan pondered the "glitch" in their communication. Panic wasn't an option. She needed to reason this out. Her trip and her sanity called for a little courage, so she focused on Pete. What a remarkable human being! He was as wonderful as she expected, maybe even more so. She had bugged over his suicide for a long time. Right now, this encounter dressed those wounds. The last opportunities with her favorite actors had been too short, but now the glitch in the time machine was on her side. Later, if she had anything to say about it, what happened back in 1971 just wasn't going to happen now. Kaslan snapped out of her funk. Hey! Now that was really something! She might witness someone live beyond his death!

Elliot haunted Kaslan's afternoon. That steady gaze of his sent shivers through her. She pictured herself kissing him and found herself blushing. Why hadn't he said anything to her? Everything suddenly made sense. Elliot was jealous! Holy moly! She bit her lip and shook her head. She had to keep her mind on this time period. There was something she needed to do.

Pete found Kaslan when his finished his work that afternoon. The two of them hitched a ride from a friend of Pete's who dropped them off at the beach. Time flew. Their conversation covered many subjects. Midnight came and left. No calls from Sam or Ell. She knew they had this. They could transport her out at any time, but hopefully they'd give her a heads up and a just wee bit more time.

Kaslan and Pete walked along the deserted beach. Barefoot in the wet sand where the edge of the water sinuated, they talked philosophy, poetry and the arts. Pete handed Kaslan a worry stone that he found near some tide pools. The ocean breeze felt crisp and invigorating. Anxious waves crashed and foamed. One o-five found the couple in a deep, riveting conversation. Acting…movies…Smith and Jones…the time flew and Kaslan learned everything about acting that she could. She checked her phone again and again: zero hour, 1:33 am. 1:38 am. 2:00 am.

"Wow! Congratulations." Kaslan took advantage of a pause in their conversation and looked out over the ocean frowning in amazement. "We did it!"

Pete puzzled at her words. He wasn't sure what she meant, but there was no way to explain it to him. Kaslan realized just how much a single moment in time now meant. And if mere moments mattered this much, then all the people in those moments even more so! As much as she wanted to stay, she was ready to go home when Ell signaled her, "Ten minutes." She leaned over and kissed Pete on the cheek. She wondered if he'd be ok. Would he live out the rest of his life somewhere in time? What would he think when she left? She shook her thoughts away knowing time had a way of keeping secrets.

Oh, time!

When she left him, Pete Duel was alive and well…and smiling.

Coruscant fallout showered the trio as Kaslan passed back through the portal into the present. When the brilliant halo dispersed, she stepped off the glide and walked into Ells' arms and wrapped her arms around his waist. More sparks flew and she held him until he buried his face in her hair and pulled her closer. Sam shuffled a little and scratched his nose.

"I don't know what your actor did, but I'm glad he did it." Elliot whispered in her ear.

She pulled away to look at him. "It wasn't him, Ell. It's always been you." She looked up into his eyes, "I had a great time in the past, but all I could think about was getting back to you."

Elliot fell into Kaslan's eyes and without looking away said, "Get lost, Sam."

"Wait!" Kaslan reached into her pocket and pulled out the smooth rock Pete Duel gave her on the beach. "Don't be mad. I forgot…Pete gave this to me."

Ell and Sam gaped at the smooth worry stone she brought from the past.

Kaslan tucked some hair behind an ear and shrugged, "Here Sam, you're going to need this."

The End


End file.
